Aish.com’s First Mission to Israel!

Participants from around the world fly to Israel to study and tour with Aish.com.

On October 24, 2010, Aish.com students from Canada and Spain, Oklahoma and Seattle and points in-between, arrive in Israel for a spectacular 8-day adventure of touring and studying with Aish.com.

The schedule features daily Torah study sessions with Aish.com favorites including Yaakov Salomon, Lori Palatnik and Sara Rigler – all in a classroom overlooking the Western Wall.

Plus there are exciting day trips with world-class tour guide Rabbi Ken Spiro, author of "Crash Course in Jewish History."

Mission participants will be spending time throughout the week with the senior staff of Aish.com: Editor-in-Chief Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith, Senior Editor Rabbi Shraga Simmons, and Director of Development, Rabbi Jack Kalla.

Aish HaTorah operates programs in 100 cities on 5 continents, and has been described as a "billion-dollar asset to the Jewish community." Get an inside understanding of what fuels this idealism and success.

Enjoy a lamb lover’s feast at one of Jerusalem’s most popular dining destinations.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010
“Concentric Circles”

9:15 am Testing 1-2-3

Lori Palatnik Lori is an author and Jewish educator who has appeared on TV and radio and has lectured on five continents, illuminating traditional Judaism for our contemporary world. She is known to Aish.com readers for her popular "Lori Almost Live" video blog.

10:30 am Changing Lives, One Click at a Time: The Impact ofAish.com

Join the directors of Aish.com in the Kirk Douglas Theatre and gain a deeper understanding of Aish.com's mission and the impact we are making around the world.

11:30am How to Get Your Prayers Answered

Rabbi Yaakov Salomon

12:30 pm Lunch at Aish World Center

2:00 pm Tour of Gush Etzion

With Rabbi Ken Spiro - Journey through the biblical heartland of historic Israel, the land where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived and built the Jewish nation. Gush Etzion is a group of settlements south of Jerusalem, featured prominently in news reports about the peace process. Rich in pre-state history, it was the corridor into Jerusalem that held off the invading Arab armies during Israel's War of Independence.

3:15 pm Prepare Food for Soldiers
Here’s your chance to give something back to the brave young people who assist in guarding the Land of Israel.

4:30 pm Koby's Legacy, with Sherri Mandell
Hear the heart-rending, yet inspiring words of the mother of Koby Mandell, a 13-year-old boy who was murdered by terrorists while hiking near his home. Hear about the Koby Mandell Foundation which provides therapeutic retreats for Israeli victims of terror. Sherri & Seth Mandell were featured in Aish.com’s “Heroes of Israel” video series.

6:00 pm Tour and Dinner at the Gush Etzion Winery
Enjoy a delicious meal accompanied by a sampling of house specialties from the winery.

Thursday, October 28, 2010
“The Judean Desert”

11:00 am Masada
Explore the ancient fortress of Masada – King Herod's mountain palace and site of the last stronghold where the Jewish zealots fought against the Romans. Join Rabbi Spiro in reliving this amazing time in Jewish history.

Join the bustle as Jerusalemites prepare for Shabbat at this astounding and authentic Middle eastern open air market.

4:15 pm Kabbalat Shabbat at the Western Wall
Combine the holiness of space and time for a magical welcoming of Shabbat at the Western Wall.

5:30 pm Shabbat Dinner at the Aish World Center
A Shabbat dinner like you’ve never had before, deliciously prepared by Aish.com’s very own Chef Hershel. Hear inspirational words of Torah and reach the heights of Shabbat joy – all with a direct view overlooking the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

Hear the explosive inside story about media bias in the Mideast conflict from Shraga Simmons, Aish.com’s senior editor, former editor of HonestReporting.com and author of the forthcoming book, "David & Goliath."

Scrumptious Dairy Buffet at the Hotel

Sunday, October 31, 2010
“Closing the Circle”

9:15 am Genesis & the Big Bang

Dr. Gerald Schroeder has Ph.D's in Nuclear Physics and Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT, where he taught physics for seven years. While a consultant at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, he participated in the formulation of nuclear non-proliferation treaties with the former Soviet Union and witnessed the testing of six atomic bombs. Dr. Schroeder is a featured lecturer at Aish Jerusalem, and is the author of several popular books, including "Genesis and the Big Bang," now in seven languages.

12:00 pm Free Afternoon

Enjoy free time and shopping in downtown Jerusalem, off Ben Yehuda Street where musicians, artists, tourists, students and locals all gather to shop, eat and shmooze.

5:30 pm Principles of Jewish Leadership Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith
Aish.com’s goals are more than just educating Jews about Judaism – we also seek to instill the value of taking responsibility to help others. Aish.com’s editor-in-chief explores the Torah’s tools for proactively making a difference in the world.

6:30 pm Final Farewell Banquet
This is not goodbye, but "la'hitra'ot" – see you again soon. A mission of memories is now yours. Bring it back, play it forward, and come “home” again soon.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!